Lighting up a cigarette will only be legal for adults over the age of 21 in Hawaii soon, as the state prepares to become the first in the U.S. to bump the minimum legal age to partake in tobacco products up from 18. [More]

Earlier this month a new study found that it was increasingly easy for teens to purchase e-cigarettes despite a plethora of laws prohibiting the sale of such products to minors. Today, a group of Senators are taking action to make it more difficult for minors to purchase the products by creating restrictions on sales and marketing of e-cigarettes. [More]

California has taken a stance in the debate over electronic cigarettes, and it is coming down squarely on the side that says e-cigarettes are potentially harmful. In a new report released this week by the California Department of Public Health, officials declare e-cigarettes as a threat to public health. [More]

Formaldehyde may be good for preserving dead bodies, but as a known carcinogen, it’s not really something you want to put into a living body. But when users of e-cigarettes — many of whom ditched smoking because of cancer-causing chemicals like formaldehyde — enjoy their tasty vapor, they may be getting more formaldehyde than they would from smoking a cigarette. [More]

When the Food and Drug Administration unveiled proposed regulations for electronic cigarettes back in April, it was an announcement five years in the making. Now several months later little has happened, and a group of senators fear that the failure to quickly finalize the rules has led to the perpetration of misleading health warnings created by tobacco companies themselves. [More]

Though the makers of e-cigarettes say their devices aren’t marketed to children, some companies that make liquid nicotine are not only using candy and fruit flavors that are forbidden from regular tobacco, but they’re using trademarked names of well-known snacks, sweets, and cereals. This isn’t sitting well with the companies that hold those trademarks. [More]

It only took five years, but the Food and Drug Administration is ready to begin regulating electronic cigarettes. While the new rule covers a lot of ground with the never-before regulated devices, it doesn’t deal with some of critics’ more controversial concerns. [More]

While critics of e-cigarettes raise concerns about everything from exploding devices to poisoning risks to marketing and advertising to minors, there are currently no specific federal regulations on these products. That is likely to change soon, says the head of the FDA. [More]

For more than 50 years the Surgeon General has warned consumers of the risks associated with smoking cigarettes. Since that time, many products introduced as alternatives. One of the most recent, and popular options is the use of e-cigarettes. But poison control officials say the reusable sticks contain enough nicotine to be bad for your health. [More]

Those on the left and right coasts might quibble over who has it better — 75 degrees and sunny all the time or not freaking out when it rains? — but there’s at least one thing Los Angeles and New York City have in common: You won’t be able to suck on an electronic cigarette in public in either place very soon. [More]

E-cigs are still in a strange regulatory no-man’s-land. They’re kind of like regular cigarettes, but they’re also kind of not. Can you use them in places where smoking’s not allowed? Do they fall under current laws restricting the sale of tobacco products to minors? Nobody really knows, yet. Nobody, that is, except the state of Ohio, where a bill regulating e-cigarette sales is now sitting on the governor’s desk. [More]

Back in 1964, 42% of American adults smoked tobacco. That same year, the U.S. Surgeon General’s office issued a landmark report about the link between smoking and lung cancer. Since then, there have been 31 additional reports from various Surgeons General, each adding more insight into the health hazards of smoking. In that time, the percentage of adult smokers has been cut by more than half to 18%, but the latest report says people aren’t quitting fast enough. [More]

New York City has had a strict ban on smoking in many public places like bars, restaurants, workplaces, stores and since 2002, with the addition of parks and public plazas in 2011. But even if that smoke isn’t really smoke, and is vapor from an e-cigarette, well now you can’t do that either, after Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped push a measure through the city council that extends the smoking ban to e-cigs. [More]

It’s not just has-been actors like Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy who smoke electronic cigarettes. They have become increasingly popular not just with smokers trying to quit but with people who want the fun of smoking without the whole “ashtray lung” after effect. Additionally, e-cigs don’t come with most of the pesky sales limitations of their tobacco counterparts, making them easier to buy and sell for some folks. But if the Los Angeles City Council gets its way, electronic cigarettes will soon be treated exactly the same as the unplugged versions. [More]

E-cigarettes, even the ones that are plugged into the correct charger and don’t explode, have a problem. Well, their users have a problem. Some former cigarette smokers who are used to flinging butts out the window when they finish a smoke are having trouble letting go of their nasty habit. The trouble is that metal e-cig cartridges are, well, metal, and puncture tires out on the roads. [More]

Any 17-year-olds in New York City ticking off the days until they come of legal age and can go out to buy cigarettes or other tobacco should probably know that the City Council just voted to move the legal age to buy tobacco products — and also e-cigarettes — from 18 to 21. Keep ticking those days off. [More]